New 'Yearn Eve, 1958

New 'YearN Eve, 1958 Fidel Castro was chatting with Errol Flynn. A CIA man was authorizing arms for the rebels. A teenager named. Rosa dreamed of love, and millions of Cubans were going to .year-end parties. Here, in the fIrst of two parts, Tropic re-creates the dramatic hours which began the migration of 75'0,000 Cubans to the United states'· 'By John Dorschner cials, it WIl!B the flrBt time they ' had talked business suit and ate a late breakfast. About 3 about it for publication. p.m., he announced he was going to Kuquine, And Roberto Fabricio Those closest to the situation say that, by his hacienda outside Havana. Through the nighttime air, they sped, three late December, they knew Batisb 's govarn Cosme Varas went with him. As usual, the DC-4s, fanning out from the fog-shrouded mili ment was near collapse. The strongman's two limousine was acco~panied by two cars loaded tary airfield in Havana, racing through a Carib bulwarks - the U.S. goyern&ent and the with bodyguards. Along the route, other agents bean cold front · on a moonlit night, carrying Cuban military - had abandoned him. The .of the military police, SIM, checked possible p888engers who were fleeing for their lives. fighting was still 165 miles from Havana, but trouble spots. ' . To the Dominican Republic went one, with the rebels were gaining ground almost at will. At 'Kuquine, Batista worked alone in the Cuban strongman Fulgencio Batista. his wife In the minds of Batista leaders loomed the library wing for a while, until he was joined by and the island's political leaders. To Jackson specter of the fall of the Machado diCtatorship his two closest aides: Andres Domingo Morales ville went another, with the heads of the police during two bloody days in August 1933, when del Castillo, the presidential secretary, and Dr. and the military. To New Orleans went a third, at least 1,000 officials and policemen had been' Golizalo Guell, the prime minister. with Batista children, minor officials and rela slaughtered on the streets of Havana. At 6:30 p.m., Batista talked by phone with 'tives. Such fears were completely absent from Brig. Gen. Francisco (Sillto) Tabemilla, the Inside the planes was a funereal silence. the news on Dec. 31. In fact, both Cuban and . 39-year-old son of the chief of·the armed forces .- Soma _n . were· I5till dreaaed in formal American media were echoing. government re who doubled as Batista's main military aide gowns. Many of the men had guns. Fe)\' had pods that the rebels were being routed from and as chief of the Havana jnfantry. time to bring anything else. For most, the de Las Villas province. Thus, in Havana the 1.3 The phone call WIIB brief. Batista wanted parture had been shockingly swift. It was a million residents sensed only a slight aura of Sillto to come to Kuquine at 7:30 p.m. "Bring night, thought one passenger, when the hours tension. Most were preparing for a traditional, my passport," sai4 Batista. "And bring the seemed like minutes, and the minutes seemed if subdued, celebration, with the mid.night ritu list." like hours. al of the eating of the 12 grapes, one by one, to Silito knew what he meant. He had been . Behind them, on an island where six mil cOJ.DDlemorate the pessing of the old, and the carfying that list with him everywhere for the lion ' people were going to sleep after celebrat beginning of the new ... past nine days. Batista had dictated it to him ing the arrival of the New Year, two men sat on Dec. 22 in the downstairs office of the presi alone in an office at Camp Columbia. dential home at Camp Columbia. ·It .listed the One was Gen. Eulogio Cantillo,' the new Atage 57, Fulgencio Batista had learned to names of people who would flee with him "just live with the threat of violence without show- in case we have to go." chief of the armed forces. The other was Carlos ing fear. Manuel Piedra, an old man who was .slowly At the same time, Batista had ordered Sill On the morning of Dec. 31, he .was in' the realizing that, as the senior judge' of the to's brother, Carlos (Winse) Tabernilla, chief of Supreme Court, he was the constitutionally Presidential Palace, sitting in the room where, the air force, to move three civilian passenger designated successor to the presidency. 18 mon.ths before, he had led his bodyguards in 'planes to Camp ColUmbia's airfield, ready.to repulslDg a sui~dal attack by 50 young revolu take off at a moment's notice. "Well; Mr. President," said General Cantil- tionaries carrying Bub-machine guns. When they had made the list, Batista had 10, "what do we do now?" Wearing a burgundy bathrobe and sipping said it was important that no one be told about "Well, General," replied the judge, "wh8.t a, mild coffee, he was following his daily rou- ' it.' The president did not have to-mention the do we .do now?"' tine: reading Diario de la Marina IIlJd thim bloodbath following Machado's overthrow. scanning the headlines in the other newspa Silito understood. It was the early morning hours of Jan. 1, pers. 1959, and the pendulum of Cuban politics was At 11 a.m., he summoned Cosme Varas, a More than 500 miles to the east of Havana, about to swing from a right-wing dictatorship 34-year-old aide de camp, and asked him to in the 26th-of.:.July rebels were in a festive mood. to the establishment , of the f'lrBt Communist vite government leaders to a midnight gather After two yearli of struggling for survival in the government in the Western Hemisphere. ing at his' Camp Columbia home.. Batista want mountains, they were now relaxing in Palma To Americans, the events of.that long night ed a subdued affair. No dancing, no formal Soriano, a city of 75,000 overlooking Santiago. are' known mostly from the highly fictionalized· meal. Just a buffet and coffee, perhaps with a The townspeople had welcomed them openly. , version in the movie The Godfather - Part II. little brandy thrown in. Dr. Raul Chibas, a Castro major, sat in an To Cubans, many of the events, even today, are Varas started making phone calls. No one open-air cafe. Sipping coffee and smoking a clouded in bolos - rumors. refused the invitation, and no one asked ques cigar, he chatted with Maj. Jose Quevedo, chief What did happen, exactly? Why didBatis tions. The Columbia party had become a New of the government's army units in the area. ta flee? How 'did Fidel Castro'seize power so . Year's. Eve tradition ·with Batillta.· Only one Quevedo had just defected to the rebels, swiftly? To reconstruct· the situation which 0c person could not be located: Rafael Guas In At a nearby table, Fidel Castro was talking curred 17 years ago this week,. Tropic inter cl!ID, the vice president. Varas ' made many to Enol Flynn. Flynn was spending a f~ ' days viewed '40 persons -;- Batista officials, rebel phone calls trying to trace the man. He was with the rebels, soaking up the atmosphere, leaders, American diplomats, ordinary Cubans. somewhere in the hills, evidently, hunting deer; briefly sharing their romantic life. For many of them. including the former offi Mter noon, Batista bathed, put on a gray Castro told Flynn that he had 2,500 TROPIC - December 28, 1915 7 G&lale NIGHT Conlinued :J)iamonJ Rin, guerrillas righting on three fronts. The battlea A pear shaped diamond of magnificent pro were going well .. What bothered him was not portions, and brilliancy from the estate of J. B. the war, but the peace. Political machinations Goldstein, New York City diamond dealer were occurring in Havana, and he had no Solitaire diamond exactly 7.83 Ct., a pair of conuol over them. Perhaps ajunta would seize tapered baguette diamonds on side, weighing power and thwart the revolution. Perhaps .75 ct. Batista would flee, goiitg into exile with his miUions 'without having to face the firing squad Castro had' planned for him. What could be done? Maybe Castro mulled, he should rush a colum:tf of Oriente guerrillas to Havana. Conversation stopped. It was time for the news on the Batista-ct;lntr91,1ecl radiQ static:iD.. "Thinga are quiet and everything is.. under con trol in Oriente," said the announcer. The rebels laughed. L the library of his Havana home, preai dent-elect Andres Riyero Ag)Jero was working. Like many Batista associatea, he was born into a poor family. An orphan at seven, a student who had worked ~ way through the Havana Law School, a politician who owed much to Ba tista, he was now preparing for his inaugura-· tion, scheduled forFIlb. 24. , The statistics in front of him showed that SALE - 30% off Reg, Prices MARTIN K.lNGS the taxea on real eatate and corporate income, FLORIDA DIAMOND BROKERS were projected to produce $200 million for the fara decorating center OUT OF TOWN OUR 63rd YEAR MAILED TO YOUR government. But only $12 million had been col 2754 n.w. no. river dr. (n.w. 20th st.l BUYERS CALL BANK ON lected during the last year. The reason for the COLLECT '407 LlNCOLN·RD, APPROVAL miami, fIa. discrepancy, he knew, had to he that tax collec phones: 634-1449 I 633-164& tors "and other higher ups" were accepting , brDWard~ 527·.0182 . bribes. Was there' a way to get the .tax system working again? Come or call to see samples in your home.

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